Women and the Media

We hear about Sarah Palin’s wardrobe, her family, or her speech pattern so often, you’d think she has a bull’s-eye tacked to her backside. Letterman came after her daughter. Now rumors float around about a divorce. She’s a Republican woman trashed not only by liberals, but the wacky right in her own party. We’re led to believe the media only attacks Republican women. The truth is, the media attacks any woman in this country who stands out above the crowd– Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Obama, or Hillary Clinton. The following media comments are linked back to the source:

Dr. Regina Benjamin
“Since President Obama announced his pick for the nation’s Top Doc, Internet message boards have been atwitter with the observation that Dr. Regina Benjamin is fat.”

Sonia Sotomayor
“Whether we like it or not, women are often held to a separate standard than men, when it comes to the way they look…I read more about Speaker Pelosi’s Botox and plastic surgery than I do about her legislative accomplishments…Sonia, I saw you on TV at the start of the hearings. Nothing personal, but are you the only woman in the world who has not heard of SPANX? Come on– go buy some…I just wonder why she didn’t blow-dry her hair, even in the ladies room of the Senate building, where the hearings were held.”

Hillary Clinton
“When it comes to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s fashion choices, women often talk about her trademark pantsuits and speculate that she wears them to hide her “chankles”– slang for chubby ankles…plastic surgeons now offer $4,000 to $6,000 liposuction procedures to slim them.”

Michelle Obama
“Maybe she just has a bad case of flu, but apparently others noticed it and the rumor that she might be pregnant has been flying around DC…if Michelle isn’t already knocked up with #3, she and Barack should start trying immediately.”

Nancy Pelosi
“Nancy Pelosi is starting to act like somebody spiked her Botox with traces of arsenic, and the descent into paranoid madness is somewhat reminiscent of Captain Queeg on the witness stand in The Caine Mutiny.”

Barbara Boxer
“Barbara Boxer the Royal B*tch of the west…As a woman, her lack of endearing qualities and shrill bitterness is undoubtedly the number one cause of homosexuality among male Californians.”

Sexism is alive and well in America. We can’t just shrug it off when the joke’s on a woman of the other party. There’s nothing funny about sexism. If you’re tired of the media trashing woman political candidates, The New Agenda supports women for public office. This non-political organization wants to bring about a “systemic change in the way women are treated by the media, by the government, at the workplace, and at home.” and seeks to “achieve safety and opportunity for all women by addressing issues which unite us by advancing women in leadership roles.”